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F.B.I. Agents Investigate 2 Lawmakers in the Bronx

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating allegations of corruption against two Bronx lawmakers — State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. and his son, Assemblyman Rubén Díaz Jr., according to an official familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The investigation, first reported by The Daily News, came to light on Thursday, when F.B.I. agents visited the city’s Board of Elections office in the Bronx seeking voter petitions and other records for the elder Mr. Díaz and his son. The agents obtained copies of their personal voter registration and voter history records as well as candidate petitions signed by voters, a Board of Elections spokeswoman said.

James M. Margolin, a spokesman for the F.B.I.’s New York office, declined to comment.

The elder Mr. Díaz said in an interview yesterday that the authorities had not contacted him. He said he had no knowledge of anything wrong with his voter records or his petitions. “I don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said of the investigation.

Mr. Díaz is a Pentecostal minister who has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion. In 2003, he sued the city over the expansion of a small public school for gay students. He called for the resignations of Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott last month after the city cut and consolidated school bus routes.

He said he wondered if his political stances played a role in the inquiry. “I’m aware that I’m making a lot of enemies,” he said, adding, “Somebody is pushing the F.B.I. to find something.”

His son has earned praise within Bronx Democratic circles and is widely regarded as a potential candidate for Bronx borough president. The office of the younger Mr. Díaz released a statement last night saying he had not been accused of any wrongdoing. “I have always approached my public service with a high standard of integrity,” Mr. Díaz said in the statement. “If any government agency is seeking to collect information relating to me, I am more than willing to address their requests and reasonably assist them.”

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Rubén Díaz Jr. and Rubén Díaz Sr.

About 11 a.m. on Thursday, F.B.I. agents went to the Bronx office of the Board of Elections on the Grand Concourse with a subpoena requesting any material relating to the Díazes. “We cooperated fully with the investigation,” said the spokeswoman for the board, Valerie Vazquez.

Because the office discards voter petitions after two years, under state election law, the only petitions on file for the two candidates were from 2006, for the Sept. 12 Democratic primary and the Nov. 7 general election, Ms. Vazquez said.

Candidates are required by election law to collect a certain number of signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot. The petitions must be certified by the Board of Elections as being valid. The younger Mr. Díaz needed a minimum of 500 signatures to get on the ballot for re-election to his Assembly seat; his father needed a minimum of 1,000 signatures to appear on the ballot to retain his Senate seat.

The elder Mr. Díaz has been no stranger to controversy. When Gov. Eliot Spitzer was attorney general, he found that Mr. Díaz had improperly spent almost $5,000 in government grants intended for a Bronx nonprofit group on furniture for his district office and loudspeakers for his campaign. Yesterday, he said all of the money had been repaid, and he described that case as a misunderstanding. “We put the money back and that’s it,” he said.

In 2004, an ally of his political rival, Pedro Espada Jr., accused Senator Diaz of not living in the Bronx district that he represents and sued him in federal court. Mr. Díaz said the suit had no merit. The case was later dismissed by a judge who said it belonged not in federal but in state court.

The investigation comes at a rather bleak time for Bronx Democrats.

State Senator Efrain González Jr. was charged in December 2006 by federal prosecutors with stealing more than $400,000 in state money and using it for personal expenses, including financing his private cigar company.

Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the influential head of the county Democratic organization, is also the focus of an F.B.I. investigation. It concerns allegations of wrongdoing involving real estate dealings.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: F.B.I. Agents Investigate 2 Lawmakers In the Bronx. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe